I was there, in NYC in 1983. I was 21. In 1985 I started nursing school at St. Vincent's on the corner of Bleecker and Christopher Streets. In 1986 I turned 24 and started working for The Alliance Against AIDS and began my career providing care for people, mostly kids and young men around my age, dying of AIDS in thier apartments. In 1989 I left NYC and moved to San Francisco, became and RN and later an NP. I worked in AIDS care until Y2K. Nobody as young as I was should ever have to see the thigns I saw or experienced what I experienced. I survived and got thru the epidemic physically unscathed but my memories are still as fresh as though it was still 1986. I will be 61 in a few weeks.
thank you for all those who slipped from this world before they could tell you how just touching them, caring about them, and listening to them kept so many together for as long as they could.
Thanks you but honestly, I don't feel like a hero, and certainly not an angel LOL, but back then I loved what I did. Also, back then, the health care industry seemed a bit more together and more functional than today making it easier to care for these folks. Today, I think it would be different
Michael Callen was so eloquent with his counterpoint. A beautiful man who died a horrible, slow death. He lived 11 years with AIDS (not just HIV, AIDS). RIP to him, Vito and Larry.
The early folks like Vito and Larry Kramer and Peter Staley et al are the true heros who saved millions in the end from a horrifying death by demanding and getting real treatment approved by the government. HEROS.
I only knew of one person here in Sydney who had full blown AIDS back in the late 80s, as I wasn't really into the 'gay scene' . He looked like he was literally rotting from the inside out... Was absolutely horrifying & very tragic. It certainly shook me up enough to be more careful with my sexual habits at the time.
Gerry Wayne I recall from about 1985 or 1986, a woman who worked the streets at the off ramp of the 59 St. Bridge in Queens, NYC. She could barely stand, couldn’t, really, but men would still pick her up. She was so wasted away the formerly skintight sheath she wore was held up with safety pins on her shoulders. Then, one night, she was gone. I felt really bad for her and began making inquiries as to her fate. She’d been taken in by a women’s shelter and passed in two days.
Australia was lucky to not have reached the same caseload numbers so swiftly and so early-Like Europe, America, and Canada did. I guess being off the beaten path helped Australia to buffer it somewhat.
“Quiche causes homosexuality.” Here I am in 2024 having a great laugh thanks to Vito. We were so fortunate to have him. Sudden brunch syndrome? Oh, the horrors…
This panel pointed out the critical need for funding research on AIDS and help for those stricken by the pandemic at a relatively early date . The crisis worsened and pitifully was done, especially by the Reagan Administration, and 1987 Larry Kramer would be instrumental in founding ACTUP. Unfortunately, protease inhibitors would be discovered more than a decade this 1983 program. Had aggressive action been taken earlier, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people could have been saved in the US.
Scary stuff...I'm straight but what they went through , not fascinating, but interesting how the immune system works. Rest in peace. To the victims... imagine going through dementia at 30 yrs old. Diarrhea, loss of appetite. All your body fluids coming out of you with constant night sweats, and not being able to gain anything back..and waste away... especially for what the early persons with AIDS went through..
I was awful Mike, awful. Also, I cared for many many straight people, both men and women with AIDS back then. Remember, in Africa is was and remains a disease that disproportionatly effects straight folks. Thank god for condoms, and now PrEP!!!!
Wow, I was born in 1980 and grew up knowing and learning next to nothing about H.I.V/AIDS. The first time I remember any mention of it was in 1985. I remember it being named a homosexual disease and that the gay community was being punished because of their life style. It is really sobering to know there was already conversations about AIDS in the early 80's. H.I.V/AIDS education is still so important, it affects all of us and I am so happy I grew up to do my own research. :)
It was all over the news 80's but because it was first seen happening to gay men nobody cared. President Regan did not so much as publicly utter the name of the disease until September 1985. Even then, it was only because a reporter brought it up at a news conference. Not until the spring of 1987 did Reagan give a major speech about AIDS.
Incredible documentary. I lost so many friends to AIDS . Both gay and straight , men and women. Im gay and Im very lucky to be here and to not have aquired this virus. We were growing up in a very dangerous time.
smittyk68 gosh an dit seem as though peace ☮️ unity was thriving Harvey milk did a great leadership, alongside with Cleve Jones, and others. Vito seemed to be a good public figure.
smittyk68 That's wonderful. Good for you for being safe. So many men were already infected at this point before they knew this virus existed. Which is absolutely tragic to me. I'm so sorry for the loss you must've experienced.
Like you I lost so many friends to AIDS, both gay and straight, men and women, in NYC and SF. Yes, we both grew up in very dangerous times but like you, am lucky to be here. I too didn't get infected. Men like us should be studies before we get any older. The stories of what we lived thru and how we survived while everybody around us was sick and dying is also important.
wow.. so glad this existed then, and exists now for us to soak up.. powerful to watch. also.. as so many of the others have died, so curious if Bill Burke still survives?
I wondered the same thing. I tried finding more info on him, but was unsuccessful. I'd like to think he survived, but this was filmed in 83. Very early on in the epidemic. Odds aren't very good that he did.
The protest of gay activists against the ban of homosexual blood donations is the most selfish attitude i ever came across in the history of any political activism. It’s an incredibly dark chapter which that movement needs to process at some point.
Dr. Ned Polyp (from the comic cutaway) is. Me!! Far too many of the others have been lost. It was an enormous honor to work with the great Vito Russo on this project (I was 23, and drafted in at the last minute when they decided they needed something "light" to break up the heavier segments. The bit was written by activist/journalist Jay Blotcher -- who's also interviewed in another episode -- and is also still alive.
and I gotta say, Larry Kramer was very wrong here, the blood issue and the promiscuity were BIG issues, it just wasn't known widely, countless people got this in a bathhouse and from tainted blood
@@depecheaholic He did..I think he was trying to appease the community a bit there and was trying not to put all the blame on promiscuity, but he knew..he definitely knew.
Elizabeth Andres Absolutely, he was. And he took a lot of hate for it. The blood supply was a huge issue. My mother needed knee surgery and couldn’t self-donate. Although she was diabetic, her cousin donated blood just in case, despite the fact that Anna put herself at risk. She ended up in the hospital for a week, getting stabilized. Mom didn’t need the blood, which was a let down, of sorts.
He was correct in retrospect, by the time this aired it the horse had already bolted out of the stable. It didn't help matters, but in a situation where over 40% of San Francisco's hepatitis cohort already had antibodies present by '82, HIV was well entrenched in the gay population per se, not just amongst sexual athletes who had thousands of partners.
Why is it wrong to be careful ? A person can be careful and not rude about it . Men and women a like need to protect themselves: if you don’t care about yourselves enough to be careful nobody else will
Condoms were considered a "straight thing" back then because gay men didn't have to worry about pregnancy. They mostly didn't care about STDs because they were all treatable with meds until AIDS came along. I sure would've been turned off by other STDs...ick.
Msnooneinparticular....yes, they didnt worry about STDs and relied heavily on multiple courses of antibiotics which reeks havoc on the immune system...bad news
@@pattydella4 add the devouring of fecal matter which made Amebiasis spread among bug men like hell fire along with Poppers which also made immunodeficiency along with junk it was rough and tough as Steel
Reagan should have been proactive and diligent as well# Koch They disgusted me.I was a new RN and chose to work An AIDS Floor and it ROCKED,but an honor to be there and his soul is now free in peace what to be with an AIDS I At the end of their lives.If a nurse that refused 🤬🤯 I would have to kick her ass
15:00 ...listen to this, young dudes, it s going to be a useful sentence and statement for ecological catastrophy our denial governements prepare and make worse. This is a great exampke of fight and fighters. So brave and clever. Should be taught/studied in school, but it won t.
Does anyone know the fate of Bill Burke who was being interviewed by Marcia Pally? His co-interviewee Diego Lopez died in 1986, Charles Jurrist in 1991 and Michael Callen in 1993 (and Larry Kramer is still alive) but I can’t find anything about Burke.
And sadly Vito lost his battle in 1990. It is so frustrating that if many could have held on just a few more years, maybe more would be alive and well today with the prohibitor and antiviral drugs that were on the way.
+Fábio Lourenço While listening to him, I just thought he may not had AIDS but a misdiagnose due to symptomps similar to AIDS. He clearly said that his T-cell count got back into normal. It is unlikely you have AIDS and your t-cells recover withouth antoretrovirals. But I'm not a doctor. If he really had developped AIDS at that time (1983) it is unlikely he survived.
David Nord it's very possible that he could have developed aids got better and still got sick and died years later. There are people who did get better only for the disease to strike much more fiercely .
@@allenlaurent9795 AIDS is like a rollercoaster ride, it goes up and down, sometimes very fast. I lost my best friend to AIDS in 1994, and is a horrible, horrible way to die. So, I think that the doctors gave him the correct diagnosis. 😭😢
@@davidnord2858 His symptomatology is very typical for the primary infection that occurs within a month after transmission. Most doctors back then had no idea about the disease.
I was there, in NYC in 1983. I was 21. In 1985 I started nursing school at St. Vincent's on the corner of Bleecker and Christopher Streets. In 1986 I turned 24 and started working for The Alliance Against AIDS and began my career providing care for people, mostly kids and young men around my age, dying of AIDS in thier apartments. In 1989 I left NYC and moved to San Francisco, became and RN and later an NP. I worked in AIDS care until Y2K. Nobody as young as I was should ever have to see the thigns I saw or experienced what I experienced. I survived and got thru the epidemic physically unscathed but my memories are still as fresh as though it was still 1986. I will be 61 in a few weeks.
thank you for all those who slipped from this world before they could tell you how just touching them, caring about them, and listening to them kept so many together for as long as they could.
@@profwriteteacher9887 Thanks for your very sweet words.
Thank you for stepping up when most others would not. ❤
Thank you Anthony you are an angel.. You did what needed to be done!!! You are a hero.
Thanks you but honestly, I don't feel like a hero, and certainly not an angel LOL, but back then I loved what I did. Also, back then, the health care industry seemed a bit more together and more functional than today making it easier to care for these folks. Today, I think it would be different
kramer had already hiv in 1983, and is still alive in good health today
He isn’t infected lol
@@mjeffries4749 I never knew , heard of or read about Larry Kramer being diagnosed as positive.
@@mjeffries4749
He's both HIV positive and HepB positive.
And he's indeed very lucky.
He's a LTNP, long-term non-progressor.
Yes was infected
He’s passed
@@Peter-fm2vx probably didn't take the hazards of the early AZT
Michael Callen was so eloquent with his counterpoint. A beautiful man who died a horrible, slow death. He lived 11 years with AIDS (not just HIV, AIDS). RIP to him, Vito and Larry.
The early folks like Vito and Larry Kramer and Peter Staley et al are the true heros who saved millions in the end from a horrifying death by demanding and getting real treatment approved by the government. HEROS.
❤❤❤❤
instablaster...
White gays are demonized now and given no credit
I am glad that Larry got to live a long, full life. And Peter Staley is still with us, healthy and still handsome too lol. RIP to Vito and Larry.
it's interesting that Vito is looking already emaciated and sick here but he doesn't get diagnosed until 3 years later.
37:20 what a beautiful smile. Rest in peace, Vito.
Indeed, it lights up the screen.
Vito was already infected but just didn't know it yet.
I only knew of one person here in Sydney who had full blown AIDS back in the late 80s, as I wasn't really into the 'gay scene' . He looked like he was literally rotting from the inside out... Was absolutely horrifying & very tragic. It certainly shook me up enough to be more careful with my sexual habits at the time.
Gerry Wayne I recall from about 1985 or 1986, a woman who worked the streets at the off ramp of the 59 St. Bridge in Queens, NYC. She could barely stand, couldn’t, really, but men would still pick her up. She was so wasted away the formerly skintight sheath she wore was held up with safety pins on her shoulders. Then, one night, she was gone. I felt really bad for her and began making inquiries as to her fate. She’d been taken in by a women’s shelter and passed in two days.
Australia was lucky to not have reached the same caseload numbers so swiftly and so early-Like Europe, America, and Canada did. I guess being off the beaten path helped Australia to buffer it somewhat.
We need people like this today that will stand up and fight
“Quiche causes homosexuality.” Here I am in 2024 having a great laugh thanks to Vito. We were so fortunate to have him. Sudden brunch syndrome? Oh, the horrors…
This panel pointed out the critical need for funding research on AIDS and help for those stricken by the pandemic at a relatively early date . The crisis worsened and pitifully was done, especially by the Reagan Administration, and 1987 Larry Kramer would be instrumental in founding ACTUP. Unfortunately, protease inhibitors would be discovered more than a decade this 1983 program. Had aggressive action been taken earlier, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people could have been saved in the US.
People were so much more well-spoken....men look better with luxurious hair...
Yeah blame hip hop culture
Well men are back to having mullets now, so I hope that makes you happy 😂
RIP Vito and the thousands of other gay men who fell victim to the notorious AIDS epidemic!
Scary stuff...I'm straight but what they went through , not fascinating, but interesting how the immune system works. Rest in peace. To the victims... imagine going through dementia at 30 yrs old. Diarrhea, loss of appetite. All your body fluids coming out of you with constant night sweats, and not being able to gain anything back..and waste away... especially for what the early persons with AIDS went through..
💔❤️
I was awful Mike, awful. Also, I cared for many many straight people, both men and women with AIDS back then. Remember, in Africa is was and remains a disease that disproportionatly effects straight folks. Thank god for condoms, and now PrEP!!!!
Wow, I was born in 1980 and grew up knowing and learning next to nothing about H.I.V/AIDS. The first time I remember any mention of it was in 1985. I remember it being named a homosexual disease and that the gay community was being punished because of their life style. It is really sobering to know there was already conversations about AIDS in the early 80's. H.I.V/AIDS education is still so important, it affects all of us and I am so happy I grew up to do my own research. :)
It was all over the news 80's but because it was first seen happening to gay men nobody cared. President Regan did not so much as publicly utter the name of the disease until September 1985. Even then, it was only because a reporter brought it up at a news conference. Not until the spring of 1987 did Reagan give a major speech about AIDS.
After people went through so much you can hardly believe aids is on the increase again
Having seen how so many people view covid, I absolutely can believe that a less transmissible, less deadly disease is on the rise.
WOW, Bill and Deigo, incredible interview and the lady did a great job. This was new to her but she did a great job..
Do we know what happened to Bill and Diego?
@@husseinm.4723 There are so many stories we will never know…
Incredible documentary. I lost so many friends to AIDS . Both gay and straight , men and women. Im gay and Im very lucky to be here and to not have aquired this virus. We were growing up in a very dangerous time.
smittyk68 gosh an dit seem as though peace ☮️ unity was thriving Harvey milk did a great leadership, alongside with Cleve Jones, and others. Vito seemed to be a good public figure.
smittyk68 That's wonderful. Good for you for being safe. So many men were already infected at this point before they knew this virus existed. Which is absolutely tragic to me. I'm so sorry for the loss you must've experienced.
Andrea shmandrea once they knew- they kept fucking and shifting the blame on the government. They killed themselves. Death by sick dick!
Like you I lost so many friends to AIDS, both gay and straight, men and women, in NYC and SF. Yes, we both grew up in very dangerous times but like you, am lucky to be here. I too didn't get infected. Men like us should be studies before we get any older. The stories of what we lived thru and how we survived while everybody around us was sick and dying is also important.
RIP, Vito and Larry.
RIP Vito and Larry, you beautiful men
wow.. so glad this existed then, and exists now for us to soak up.. powerful to watch. also.. as so many of the others have died, so curious if Bill Burke still survives?
I wondered the same thing. I tried finding more info on him, but was unsuccessful. I'd like to think he survived, but this was filmed in 83. Very early on in the epidemic. Odds aren't very good that he did.
OMG at the gay mouse. Frigggin classic!!!!
The protest of gay activists against the ban of homosexual blood donations is the most selfish attitude i ever came across in the history of any political activism. It’s an incredibly dark chapter which that movement needs to process at some point.
Michael Callen passed away in '93, so 10 yrs after this was filmed.
Legendary activists - Larry Kramer, Bless you - he survives today!
Rik is Major Drama because he secretly doesn’t have AIDS or HIV
Indigo Arra- What makes you think that?
Yes! Larry Kramer is 83!!!
He's still going strong!
I believe his anger and obvious passion on this issue is what has kept him alive and fighting. What a wonderful human being.
Other countries had it to but would not admit it. It came in from the ships at major ports.
I wonder how many of these men in the video are still alive?
Dr. Ned Polyp (from the comic cutaway) is. Me!! Far too many of the others have been lost. It was an enormous honor to work with the great Vito Russo on this project (I was 23, and drafted in at the last minute when they decided they needed something "light" to break up the heavier segments. The bit was written by activist/journalist Jay Blotcher -- who's also interviewed in another episode -- and is also still alive.
@@PO139DD Glad you're still with us.
They’re all dead but 3
@@PO139DD That's so awesome! And thank you for your contribution to this episode!
@@PO139DD You were hilarious in that skit. I know of the others, but is Bill Burke still alive?
and I gotta say, Larry Kramer was very wrong here, the blood issue and the promiscuity were BIG issues, it just wasn't known widely, countless people got this in a bathhouse and from tainted blood
Isn't Larry the one who said "We need to stop fucking!"?
Elizabeth Andres bill Kraus but the sick thing still died in 86
@@depecheaholic He did..I think he was trying to appease the community a bit there and was trying not to put all the blame on promiscuity, but he knew..he definitely knew.
Elizabeth Andres Absolutely, he was. And he took a lot of hate for it. The blood supply was a huge issue. My mother needed knee surgery and couldn’t self-donate. Although she was diabetic, her cousin donated blood just in case, despite the fact that Anna put herself at risk. She ended up in the hospital for a week, getting stabilized. Mom didn’t need the blood, which was a let down, of sorts.
He was correct in retrospect, by the time this aired it the horse had already bolted out of the stable. It didn't help matters, but in a situation where over 40% of San Francisco's hepatitis cohort already had antibodies present by '82, HIV was well entrenched in the gay population per se, not just amongst sexual athletes who had thousands of partners.
Why is it wrong to be careful ? A person can be careful and not rude about it . Men and women a like need to protect themselves: if you don’t care about yourselves enough to be careful nobody else will
Right. Im careful around people i know have the common cold...no one wants to risk their health regardless what the disease is.
Condoms were considered a "straight thing" back then because gay men didn't have to worry about pregnancy. They mostly didn't care about STDs because they were all treatable with meds until AIDS came along. I sure would've been turned off by other STDs...ick.
Msnooneinparticular....yes, they didnt worry about STDs and relied heavily on multiple courses of antibiotics which reeks havoc on the immune system...bad news
@@pattydella4 add the devouring of fecal matter which made Amebiasis spread among bug men like hell fire along with Poppers which also made immunodeficiency along with junk it was rough and tough as Steel
Reagan should have been proactive and diligent as well# Koch
They disgusted me.I was a new RN and chose to work
An AIDS Floor and it ROCKED,but an honor to be there and his soul is now free in peace what to be with an AIDS I
At the end of their lives.If a nurse that refused 🤬🤯 I would have to kick her ass
Drugs played a very large part in this epidemic...btw
The music is so...so channel 13! Or was it 21 on UHF?
So 💔ing…if anyone knew then what was to come….
Vito always held his head high. I love his bravery.
What a tragedy😢😮
So early and community was just starting to get hit, the man in the street interviews are such a time capsule of before.
15:00 ...listen to this, young dudes, it s going to be a useful sentence and statement for ecological catastrophy our denial governements prepare and make worse.
This is a great exampke of fight and fighters. So brave and clever. Should be taught/studied in school, but it won t.
disco music from the 70s
So sad
Does anyone know the fate of Bill Burke who was being interviewed by Marcia Pally? His co-interviewee Diego Lopez died in 1986, Charles Jurrist in 1991 and Michael Callen in 1993 (and Larry Kramer is still alive) but I can’t find anything about Burke.
And sadly Vito lost his battle in 1990. It is so frustrating that if many could have held on just a few more years, maybe more would be alive and well today with the prohibitor and antiviral drugs that were on the way.
@@amandarobb2856
Really?
Jurrist just wanted to fuck as many men as possible.
He got what he went for.
@@marcelfr90 you are so wrong.
@@davidnord2858
Δε νομίζω.
Ο δικός μας τώρα έπρεπε νάναι 70+.
@@marcelfr90 που 'σαι ρε ζαρκάδι; τί κάνεις;
17:41 Bob Cecchi???
does anyone know if the bill burke that Marcia Pally this interviewing the min40.20 is still alive ?
+Fábio Lourenço While listening to him, I just thought he may not had AIDS but a misdiagnose due to symptomps similar to AIDS. He clearly said that his T-cell count got back into normal. It is unlikely you have AIDS and your t-cells recover withouth antoretrovirals. But I'm not a doctor. If he really had developped AIDS at that time (1983) it is unlikely he survived.
David Nord it's very possible that he could have developed aids got better and still got sick and died years later. There are people who did get better only for the disease to strike much more fiercely .
@@allenlaurent9795
AIDS is like a rollercoaster ride, it goes up and down, sometimes very fast. I lost my best friend to AIDS in 1994, and is a horrible, horrible way to die. So, I think that the doctors gave him the correct diagnosis. 😭😢
@@davidnord2858
His symptomatology is very typical for the primary infection that occurs within a month after transmission.
Most doctors back then had no idea about the disease.
@@marcelfr90 are you greek?
Keish ? Like the stuff that’s made of eggs ?? Lmfao
quiche